There You'll Be
by blak-cat23
Summary: Toph is seventeen years too late on some very important news about Aang


Note: It's possible Toph does completely know Aang died but on the theoretical chance she missed that memo in her travels, her a oneshot for it.

Finding Toph had been an accident, and possibly the most miserable accident Lin had ever stumbled into. She had not expected her mother in an Air Temple, she'd not expected her mother anywhere. Toph had never cared for the temples in the sky, whenever Aang would invite Lin on his family's trips to the temples Toph was the first to stay behind. Lin wondered often if was a compliment to her independence or her mother simply getting out of a situation.

And on this grey day, rain was barely pattering down onto the stone and alabaster of the temple. The air was cold and various puffs of mist from various mouths were the only thing truly stirring as mother and daughter looked at one another.

"I made it twenty years now by myself up here, you would be the one to come drag me back," Toph said.

"I'm not dragging you anywhere," Lin said, all business, "This temple an ideal hideout—"

"Yes I'm aware."

"And _spacious_. I'm sure we can easily cohabitate without ever having to come in contact."

She saw her mother frown at that, if only slightly. Old age made Toph look like any other grandmother—did she know she was a grandmother? Yes Opal said she'd visited often—small, wrinkled, hair a mop of wispy fog on the head. Although her air was not the welcoming let-me-get-you-something-to-eat grandmother Katara had become. This was Toph's version of old age and it would clearly be done Toph's way.

"You've brought a stringy group with you," she said, nodding to the bodies she sensed beyond Lin.

So far Korra and her friends had remained silent, perhaps in astonishment, perhaps in fear. Bolin idolized Toph, had this encounter strengthen or crumbled his views?

"The Avatar needs protection, there's some very hearty criminals broken loose who've spent many years in prison vowing to 'end the Avatar'. Standard procedure," she said.

"Ever the police officer," Toph said. "I'm impressed."

Lin often wondered if Toph truly did enjoy police work or simply found it an exercise in venting all that aggression. She didn't want to think her mother abusive in her duty, but she was always happiest in standoff with a criminal then watching perp get down on his knees and grovel in submission. She liked the challenge, reminding everyone she was someone worth challenging. And with each passing year fewer people dared knock that chip from her shoulder.

"How did Tenzin never find you up here?" Lin asked, staring at the architecture of the main sanctuary behind Toph.

"How would I know? I haven't seen Aang's precious baby boy since I was last in the city," Toph said. "Is Twinkle Toes Junior with you?"

"No."

She knew Toph was reading her vitals, feeling the light thud of the muscle beneath her breastplate listening for a lie or for any confirmation on the state of her life with Tenzin. When her mother had left, her relationship with Aang's youngest son looked promising, Lin destined to be the mother of Airbenders.

If Toph found what she was looking for, she made no visible note of it. The only thing that age had not rearranged on Toph was her eyes. They were the same pale green, they didn't look tired or worn. How could they? Birth had already worn her eyes completely, age could do no more to them. Lin felt her insides twist as she wanted to smile at knowing how happy her mother would be to learn she had, in fact, cheated age.

"I suppose there's room enough here for your camping party," Toph conceded, "Drag your butts inside. Where's Twinkle Toes at? Chasing some lemurs?"

Lin felt her insides turn to ropes and knot themselves an impossible amount of times over and over. Toph had left before…Toph had never known…

"What is it?"

Toph had sensed Lin go stark and her heart drop down to her toes. Perhaps she sensed the same screaming insides and complete terror in the others. The complete dread that came crashing down from the grey sky was apparent in more than just the rocks beneath their feet. Lin thought she might actually be shaking.

"Avatar Aang is dead," she said as matter-of-factly as she could muster, "He's been dead nearly eighteen years now."

Lin watched her mother closely, there was, at first no reaction at all to the news except Toph's complete silence and paralysis. Her mouth was still half open from her question and her unseeing eyes seemed trying to focus hard on a tiny point in the center of the void that was her field of vision.

"Who else is dead?" she asked, dead tone.

"Sokka," Lin said.

If that hit Toph any harder or softer it was not apparent as she continued to not react. Lin was expecting an earthquake, expecting her mother to cast them off the mountain and retreat into her palace of solitude and to never see her again.

"I outlived Twinkle Toes," she said, thoughtful, "Not sure that I wanted to."

And she turned away with no other indications or words, so Lin told the others to follow.

* * *

"My name is Korra," she said, sitting down around the fire, looking at Toph whose head turned in her direction. "I'm the Avatar…now."

Toph's face said she wanted to argue that point. And for one of the few times in her life, Lin saw her mother practice restraint.

The room was large and if Lin had paid more attention to the things Tenzin had droned about she would know the purpose of this room. There were designs on the walls and statues in the corners. The shadows of this place were eerie and for the briefest moment Lin wondered if she might just believe places could be haunted.

"Is Sugar Queen okay?" Toph asked.

"Who?" Lin said.

"His wife."

Toph had never gotten along exceptionally well with Katara, not on the surface. But Lin understood her mother shared a bond with the Waterbender that she shared with no other person. As much as they clashed, Lin wondered if the very first thought in Toph's mind was for Katara.

"She's fine," Lin said, "She lives down south now. Kya lives there with her sometimes."

Toph just grunted in response. That same reckless Earthbender was in there, trapped inside a body that couldn't keep up anymore. It was apparent in her unchanged eyes.

"But as Korra said," Lin said, sharply, "She is the Avatar—"

"Not hardly."

Toph then got up and walked from the room, leaving Lin and Korra watching, disgust for one, shock for the other. For their part, Mako, his brother, and the heiress all sat quietly, too afraid of Toph or Lin to form an opinion on the matter.

"Well," Korra said, "She's definitely your mother."

She hadn't said it with anger or malice. She sounded like she wanted to laugh. She had to admire the grace Korra accorded herself now. The seventeen year old who had plowed into Republic City a year ago would have, foolishly, gone off in a rage at Toph and had her own behind handed back to her. Perhaps Korra no longer required validation for her identity.

"You could be nicer to her," Lin said when she found her mother alone in what appeared to be her bedroom, a mat on the floor and no drapings to adorn the walls. The words felt strange leaving her lips but even she had to concede she owed Korra this much.

"What do I care, I don't know her," Toph said, busying herself with trying to properly direct herself towards the candle in the far corner.

"She's the Avatar."

The rebuttal _not _my_ Avatar_, was hanging in the dead space between them.

"Since when have I given a flying hog monkey about the Avatar?" Toph said, finding the candle with relative ease and lighting it. A million ghosts danced across Toph's face.

"I thought maybe you'd be more respectful since you gave a flying hog monkey about Aang," Lin said. It was dangerous, always, to challenge her mother.

"And I don't see him anywhere."

Normally Toph would punctuate that with a joke about how she didn't see _anyone_ anywhere, but for once she was far too serious and it made Lin uncomfortable.

"No," Lin said, "He's dead."

"Enough," it was low and dangerous.

"You missed it, missed his funeral."

"Lin."

"You weren't there when he died. These are the facts Chief."

Lin was being unfair. Not unfair in her anger at her mother, but unfair in the use of Aang's memory as a weapon. She wondered briefly if she should just pack up and leave completely, drag the Avatar and company somewhere else.

"He was my friend," Toph said dangerously.

"He was my friend too—"

"No," Toph silenced her daughter, "He rescued me from my parents when I was twelve years old, he was the first person to actually understand me. I trained him in Earthbending and he took me all over the world. I was there when he died the first time," Toph said.

Tenzin and his siblings had never been told their father died once as a boy, resurrected shortly after, but he was dead for a few moments of his life and their existence was erased from history in the catacombs of Ba Sing Se, if only for a moment. Lin had only learned the information from accident and kept it a secret per her promises to Toph, and Aang, and all the other adults.

Toph looked more excited than she'd been all day, and possibly more excited than she'd been in a while. Her cheeks were turning red and Lin wondered if she might actually be crying.

"I helped him build that city, I agreed when he asked me to make him a police force, and I looked out for him every time he acted like an idiot, which was often," Toph said.

Lin knew this list was no longer for her. Toph's attention was directed completely away from her daughter. Was she blaming Aang for dying on her? For failing all she'd worked to do for him and to keep him safe? And there were tears, Lin pretended not to notice them and Toph pretended likewise, but there they were.

"I never thought he'd be the first to go," Toph said, "He was supposed to live forever." The last part was said like a joke but Toph clenched her fist in the defeat of that dream.

"Everyone was surprised to learn he was sick," Lin said. "He kept it a secret for a very long time."

"He wouldn't have if I'd been there to-" Toph said but cut off. _But you weren't there_, Lin thought, _you weren't there to call him out and save him from himself. _She knew in that instant Toph had the same thought.

"I envied him, you know," Toph said calmer, "Being on that fluffy snot monster was awful and flying is stupid but what he could do—all the things I always made fun of him for…he was the best one out of all of us. The day of the comet he refused to let any of us bully him into killing the Fire Lord. None of us had to lift a finger but we'd gladly scream at him to murder another human being."

"You never talked like that," Lin said. She recalled how often Toph was heavy handed with perps often, she was rarely soft and rarely allowed softness in Lin. Destroying Suyin's police record had been the softest her mother ever got.

"It's better this way," Toph said.

"What?"

"He deserved more from me than to have my last memory of him as a crotchety old man dying in his bed," Toph said.

It was the best compliment she could give him. Toph appreciated strength above all things. She would refuse to let him be sick and weak as Lin remembered him before death. The Aang who would not breath quite right or get out of bed did not exist to Toph. How could the man who'd not only defeated the Fire Lord in combat, but had been strong enough to not kill him ever be that? He would be forever young in Toph's memory.

"I will apologize to your Avatar, when proves she's worthy of his reincarnation," Toph said.

And the conversation was done.

Toph didn't dream as those who could see did, though she didn't not dream as those completely without any form of sight. She dreamed in tastes and smells and touches and sounds vividly. Lin wondered that night if Toph dreamt of the smell of the air around the clouds, could feel the cotton of an Airbender's tunic, perhaps she heard his voice. Perhaps Toph dreamt of flying again.

The next morning Toph spoke up first.

"He's not gone you know," she said and Korra looked up hopefully expecting Toph to acknowledge her as his successor, but instead she said, "He's the sky now."

Lin and the others, on reflex, looked to the window outside, and there he was.


End file.
